


Reunion

by Mangacat



Series: Cybernetics-Verse [4]
Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Anxiety, Family Reunions, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Grievious Injury, M/M, happy feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-23
Updated: 2020-02-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:01:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22862173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mangacat/pseuds/Mangacat
Summary: After three years, Jared finally gets to go home.
Relationships: Jensen Ackles/Jared Padalecki
Series: Cybernetics-Verse [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1417027
Comments: 4
Kudos: 132





	Reunion

**Author's Note:**

> I can't quite believe I've written another one of those. This is a kind of outtake I already had in my head finishing up 'Island in the Sun' but it was no more than a single paragraph fragment in my head, and I wasn't really clear on whether I'd ever put it together enough to form another timestamp. And then a couple of weeks ago BAM inspiration. So, I hope the readers for this series (new and hopefully returning) appreciate just a little bit more catharsis. Thanks a bunch to silkylustre for the beta duty and the invaluble encouragement.

Jared stands in front of the door to his childhood home with Jensen at his side and his hand stretched out to knock, frozen in sudden indecision. Before he can decide whether to rap his knuckles against the wood or turn around and flee back to the car, Jensen squeezes his arm firmly and asks:  
“What is it?”  
Jared doesn’t answer for a long moment, then takes a shuddering breath.  
“I’m not who they’re expecting, I mean so much has changed, and I don’t even know… what if they can’t accept me as I am now, with all the…”  
“Compassion, kindness, intelligence and success of the just very great man that you are?”  
Jared turns to Jensen and finds just open honesty in his features. Before he can say anything else though, the door abruptly opens and Jared turns back quickly with a single word stuck in his throat.  
“Mama?”  
The moment seems to stretch into eternity in front of them with his inability to say any more until Jensen clasps a hand on his shoulder and addresses the slender brunette with Jared’s slanted cat’s eyes.  
“Hi, Mrs. Padalecki? I’m Dr. Jensen Ackles, and I’m here to bring home your son.”

~*~

Jensen doesn’t know where he finds the words, really, because the expression on both Jared’s and his mother’s faces are reflexions of stunned surprise, disbelief, and a hint of crushed hope that breaks his heart. But once the words are out, the atmosphere shatters like glass, Sharon looking at him for a second before turning back to Jared and throwing her arms around him with a half-stifled sob. He marvels at how easily his big lug of a man goes, bent nearly in half to accommodate the delicate woman in front of him, his arms around her tentative at first, then firm. They sway like that for a moment, and Jensen has to look away from where she is mumbling small ‘Thank God, oh thank you, thank you’ into Jared’s hair, tears glistening in the corner of her eyes, oddly feeling like he shouldn’t be intruding on that moment. 

His gaze gets drawn back to the entryway by the sound of a door closing and light footsteps coming near.  
“Mum, did Pete finally get his ass in gear and come over? Dad says meat and grill wait for no…”  
The young woman trails off when she gets close enough to witness the tableau on the front porch, brow wrinkling slightly at the sight of her mother engulfed in a bear hug while Jensen gives a small, awkward wave.  
“Mum?”  
That’s close enough for Jared to hear and his head jerks up from where he’d buried in his mother’s shoulder.  
“Megan.”  
And there is a lot that Jensen has learned about Jared in those past three years they’ve spent together, deep and important things, but in that one utterance there sounds a world of history he doesn’t know. It’s a strange feeling, but he’s glad for it anyway, because now apparently is his chance to find out. 

He feels only a fraction of Jared’s elation, he’s sure, when he gets to watch that young woman drop the dishtowel she’d been drying her hands with and take a couple of long strides along the entryway only to stop her fingers inches from Jared’s arm, as if she’s not sure he’s real – until he lifts his hand from his mother’s back to capture hers in an awkward tangle of fingers and she gasps. Jensen finds moisture prickle in the corner of his eyes when Jared turns his hand to grasp his sister’s true and tight, thumb rubbing over the wedding ring that must be new to him and whispers her name again.  
“How… when… I, shoot, Jared, don’t just stand there on the stoop, come in. Dad’s in the back, cooking burgers for family dinner. You really picked the right…”  
That is what opens the floodgates, wrenching a sob from Jared and he tugs his sister close, buries his face in her hair, mumbling “I’m sorry, I’m sorry” all over into the light brown strands, and Jensen wants to be there, wants to help him through it, knowing full well this is something he has to come to terms with on his own. 

After a few moments, Sharon draws a back a little bit, taking Jared’s face in both her hands, rubbing at the tears with her thumbs until her son actually looks at her, blinking in that particular rhythm Jensen’s come to recognize as him trying to readjust his vision to the changed perception that’s comes with being online. The emotional turmoil of course has knocked off his control and Jensen opens his mouth to call out to Jared, his voice always a way for Jared to lead him to equilibrium, but before he can say anything, he sees the focus return to Jared’s eyes. His mother seems none the wiser that there was something else going on in the moment than her son trying to get a handle on himself, when she speaks: “Jared, baby, what’s the matter?”  
“I… I’m sorry, mama…”  
“Whatever for?”  
“I had to… I couldn’t get to you, I couldn’t tell… and you guys, you thought…”  
“Shhhh, baby, I’m sure there’s a reason you couldn’t come back to us any earlier than now, isn’t there?”  
“Y…yeah, but I should have… I should have found a way. At least to let you know…”  
“Jared, Jared, listen to me, if you could have, come back or, or send word, any earlier, would you have wanted to?”  
“Of course, I wanted to, I … so often, but we couldn’t risk it.”

That’s the first time Jared’s mother actually turns her gaze back to Jensen since she opened the door, her sharp eyes so much like her son’s and just as piercing because she has no doubt zeroed in on the most significant part of Jared’s explanation. He feels pinned, but refuses to blush or back down from her silent inquiry, knowing full well that he’s done the best he could by Jared. Still, he slowly lets go of the stale air in his lungs when she turns back to Jared.  
“See, then you have absolutely nothing to be sorry for and we’re all kinds of blessed to have gotten you back when we did. You hear me, son?”  
“Yes, Mama, I hear you.”  
“Good, now come in and wait in the kitchen a moment, while I go make your father sit down. Wouldn’t do for him to keel over,” she says it with a lightness shining through her tear-filled eyes, but Jared’s expression is telling there’s a story there he missed in his absence, “and then you can go see him while we wait for your brother-in-law to get back so you can tell us the whole story, alright?”  
“Alright.”

Sharon pats Jared’s cheek one more time, smiling brightly before going out back to the yard. Jensen follows Megan and Jared into the kitchen, watching his boy brushing his fingers over things here and there on the way. Jensen can’t tell if it’s because they’re new or familiar, but for sure that Jared’s about to seriously vanish into his own head.  
“Your mother is quite the formidable woman.”  
Jared shoots him a grin, tugged from his wandering thoughts, and ducks his head, but it’s Megan who answers: “Jay, he’s pretty _and_ smart, wherever did you find him?”

Jensen is surprised to find Jared reaching back to tangle their hands together. They hadn’t made a final decision before on whether to address their relationship at this time, but he follows Jared’s lead without missing a beat, squeezing his hand tightly.  
“Actually, he found me, well, kind of. And you don’t know the half of it, believe me. But Jensen here saved my life, a few times over.”  
Jensen feels the heat of a blush rising in his face because as far as he is concerned, Jared did most of the saving in this partnership, considering he went up against a shadowy but very well connected crime syndicate while Jensen was held hostage, but he powers through the embarrassment with a sarcastic: “You mean to say, I saved your truly exquisite ass.”

Megan shoots a look between them, and for a moment Jensen isn’t sure the witty banter will go over well, but then a small, private smile stretches her lips and he feels some of the tension easing out of his shoulders.  
“I’m sure there is quite a story there. But I’ll take it, so long as I have my littlest brother back.”  
“Hey!” Jared squawks indignantly.  
“What?”  
“Right, you haven’t met Jeff…”  
The exchange tapers off then, and Megan looks like she doesn’t want to let Jared out of her sight again, but is also kind of overwhelmed at the same time, and so Jensen is not surprised when she makes her excuses to go see where her mother is and whether it’s alright for them to come out back. 

Jensen uses their moment alone to tug Jared closer, lets his head fall on his boy’s shoulder, forehead rubbing into the slight stubble on his cheek and whispers in the crook of his neck: “You alright?”  
Jared answers with a breathless chuckle: “I don’t know.”  
Jensen rubs his thumb over Jared’s wrist, feels the hammering pulse underneath the skin.  
“You mother loves you very much, your sister, too, you know that, right?”  
“Yeah, but…”  
“I know. No use worrying about that now though. This is your time to get your family back, right? So go meet your Dad. Think about everything else later. Let me do the talking if you need to, I’m here for you, all the way, kay?”  
He feels Jared nod, the rasp of stubble tangible against his hairline, heart still beating double time.  
“Breathe. Baby, it’s gonna be fine.”  
Jared answers with a light kiss against his forehead, startling Jensen’s eyes open with a twitch right when the backdoor opens and Sharon stops half a step into the kitchen. She doesn’t look disapproving to find them so close, nor even all that surprised, but it still feels like an intrusion on a very intimate moment that shatters into a rather awkward pause. 

Sharon puts a broad smile on her face then, beckoning Jared to come out back, but her eyes lock with Jensen’s for a moment, holding a glint that gives him notice that the list questions with which she’s no doubt going to corner him later, just got added another inch. He swallows down his anxieties, first things first after all, and watches Jared meet his father, his brother and sister in law, the nephew he’d only ever had a couple of pictures of in swaddling clothes and the new-born niece he hadn’t even known about until now.  
It’s harrowing, emotional and utterly beautiful. 

~*~

Jared stifles a gasp when steps out on the back porch and gets a first glance at his father, who sits in a lawn chair next to the grill, fingers of one hand clasped around a slender, elegant cane and looks… diminished.  
Dad had always been larger than life to Jared, even when he’d eventually surpassed him in height, and he is still a big man, but he’s lost a lot of muscle tone, the short-buzzed hair gone completely grey. Jared doesn’t have time to think about his actions before he’s flying down the steps to crash on his knees in front of his father, throwing his arms around him in a desperate bear hug. He buries his face in Gerald’s chest and finds that he smells just the same; a sudden remembrance of warmth, comfort and _home_. 

He feels himself drifting, unable to tell how much time passes and unwilling to move and let go of his father, until his words burst that little bubble.  
“Jared, Jared, how is… how is this even possible? They told us you were…”  
Jared presses even closer for a moment, before sitting back on his haunches, so he can look his father in the eye.  
“Yeah. And they were probably right at the time. There wasn’t… the odds were terribly long. But I had a really _really_ good doctor.”  
Jared turns around to wave at Jensen, who is hanging back up on the porch.  
“Dad, this is Dr. Jensen Ackles and he’s the reason I’m here today.”

His dad looks at him with big eyes and a suddenly healthy animation in his face. He pats Jared urgently and says: “Is that so? Well, son, help me up already, so I can thank the man properly.”  
Jared takes his hand and levers him up, watching him carefully makes his way over towards Jensen and vows to get everything he missed in the past three years figured out stat and never let his father out of his sight again. He is startled into almost taking a swing however, when a fist connects hard with his shoulder.  
“Whoa, whoa, hold your horses, cowboy!”  
Jared turns to find his brother holding both hands palm up.  
“I’m sorry, reflexes…”  
“Yeah, yeah, should have taken that into account.”  
Which is why Jeff telegraphs the next punch very obviously, but still doesn’t pull it, hitting Jared in the same place a second time. Jared responds with an “Ow”, dramatically rubbing the spot as if he was grievously wounded. 

Then Jeff folds him into a crushing hug as well, because thank God his brother is still bigger than him, and whispers into his ear: “Where the hell have you been, little brother?”  
The levity is sucked out of their exchange, even though Jared tells himself that Jeff’s tone is not at all accusatory. He still hugs his brother back something fierce and can’t find words for a moment. When he gets himself together enough to speak, it’s not an answer, but a plea that crowds into his mind: “Jeff, Dad, he…”  
His brother sighs into his hair and takes pity on him: “He beat it, Jay, he beat it. There was a time a couple of years ago, when… But he’s alright now, well, as much as can be, with these things.”  
Jared feels tears gather in the corners of his eyes and he isn’t afraid to let them roll down his cheeks.  
“Damn, I’ve missed so much, I can’t…” can’t process how close he might have come to finally make it home only to find his father gone. Can’t believe he’s lucky enough to not only be here, with all of his family at their regular Sunday night barbecue, but also that they’re welcoming him home with open arms and without reservation. 

Jeff ruffles his hair and catches his eye: “Now, you might have missed a lot of things, but I think before get into all that, we’re due an explanation for those greatly exaggerated news of your untimely death, huh?”  
He squeezes Jared’s shoulders as he says it to mitigate the sting, but he still feels the grief and sadness underneath that his absence has put his family through. They have had to live and get on with their lives without him for three and a half years now and that won’t be erased with the span of a few hugs, no matter that everything about his return home went better than he could have dreamed so far.  
“I know, y’all deserve that of course and I’ll give you one, it’s just…” Hard, painful, frightening – that it won’t be enough, that they’ll want to dig deeper under the layer of the carefully sanitized version of events that Jensen and Jared decided to fashion out of the precious few details the government is actually even allowing them to disclose. 

Jared takes a deep breath and slaps Jeff on the shoulder, before dragging him over to Jensen, catching his partner’s eye to let him know it’s time to get this show on the road. When his family is finally gathered around him, he makes a couple of attempts to start in on the tale, but the pressure of all eyes on him makes the words dry up. Jensen reads it immediately and takes over without a beat, as if that was the plan all along. He introduces himself by his credentials and Jared forgets sometimes that his boy is smart enough to hold a couple of BA/Masters and two PhDs, even though he is only in his thirties. Or that, apart from that, he’s very talented in breaking down endlessly complicated scientific concepts for the uninitiated along with bullshitting himself through classification outlines like a pro. That way, people listening to him always walk away thinking they got everything figured out even though they basically know _nothing_ about what he actually does. 

Jared knows the feeling and he can see it happen to his family when Jensen talks about a highly classified treatment program for soldiers who are effectively killed in action, but hang on by just enough threads to warrant this treatment plan that fails as often as it succeeds in putting them back together. He is obnoxiously vague on _what_ exactly was done to save Jared’s life, obscuring the truth behind a slew of barely pronounceable jargon. He also stretches out Jared’s time in the lab from six months to one and a half years spend in artificial coma and a lengthy recovery – which would have been a much more realistic timeline anyway if Jared’s brain wasn’t a freak of nature.  
“…until such time the U.S. military and I had a major disagreement about continuing treatment options and decided Jared needed to check out against administrative orders on account of being his primary care physician and therefore directly responsible for his well-being.” As it goes, it’s quite the fine euphemism for some higher ups wanting to have him dissected like a lab rat to see what made him tick – “…and he had to disappear until an opportunity presented itself to get square with the brass and negotiate a mutual non-interference agreement.”

Jared looks around at the dazed expressions of his family and waits while the seconds are ticking by to see if they’ll buy it or try to dig deeper, to figure out just how much Jared has changed. And it’s his brother, of course, who gets his footing first.  
“So, let me get this straight… you”, he point at Jared, “got yourself blown up in that godforsaken desert…”  
“Not quite my choice of a fun day out on patrol, but, well, pretty much.”  
“…and then flown all the way over the some secret lab, where you…”, pointing towards Jensen this time, who tenses up, imperceptible to anyone else, “… put him back together with who knows what procedure that you can’t actually talk about because it’s classified to hell and back. And while that was happening, the military send some guy over here to tell us you’re dead, since, what? They didn’t want the hassle of getting our hopes up in case it didn’t work? And then they didn’t have the decency to come back and rectify that mistake after it became clear that you would pull through? Why would they even do that if they ever going to let you…” Jared watches with rising apprehension as Jeff talks himself onto the ledge and then watches the penny drop with a sinking sensation in his stomach when his brother breathes the word: “…go.” 

He’s strangely grateful that this is the tangent Jeff chose to go off on, even if it’s no less difficult to navigate than admitting to a certain number of artificial limbs. He regrets the relief a moment later, when Jeff goes on: “They were never going to let you go, were they. You’d just disappeared, your former life all tied up and… Oh, this is… I’m gonna sue the living _SHIT_ out of them.”  
Maybe Jared should not be as surprised as he is that this is the leap the high-powered corporate lawyer of the family makes. But he is struck silent for a moment, just long enough for Jeff to spring to his feet and start pacing, muttering about briefs and filing deadlines and when Jared finally finds his voice, it’s jarringly sharp: “No, you will _not_.”

It stops Jeff dead in his tracks, clearly gearing up for the mother of all arguments: “Jared, they _took_ you from us…”  
“Yes, they did. And what’s more, they took you from _me_ , too. And it sucks that you had to grieve and couldn’t name your little brother godfather at your daughter’s baptism or that I had to miss Megan’s wedding, and couldn’t tell you how I met a guy and fell in love,” Jared blindly grasps for Jensen’s hand, whole fingers lace into his without hesitation, “even though the odds against us were pretty darn long. I can’t begin to tell you how often I was tempted to just… pick up the phone and hear your voice, to make sure you were still there and doing OK. But I couldn’t, because the very next breath, I would have to think about whether it would get you hauled in for questioning, or give away our location and then I’d just vanish in some hole without a chance to ever get back to you guys. So I had to wait, and bide my time and if I’m only sitting here now, by the grace of the United States government letting themselves be blackmailed into forgetting my existence, I’m sure as hell going to shut my mouth and not make any waves about _anything_ ever again in my life, alright? I can’t… I can’t be cut off from you guys again, you hear me? I can’t lose you, I just can’t.”

The backyard is eerily silent for a long moment, save for Jared’s heaving breath and he has to screw his eyes shut because his vision is flickering in and out from the emotional turmoil. And then he hears his mother say: “Oh, Honey.” With her delicate frame wrapping around him seconds later, followed by his sister, his dad and eventually his brother. They hold each other tight and finally have a good cry, all the pent up tension and roller-coaster emotions released into the circle of his family and it feels good, so good, to let go. When the noise has died down, Jared’s back and rubs a hand over his face, taking a deep breath. 

“There’s a lot of what happened that I’m never going to be able to talk to you about, for various reasons. Maybe some of it, eventually, but right now, I just want to get my life back, with y’all in it. And the only way to do that is to look forward and leave what happened in the past. Can you help me do that?”  
He looks into the earnest faces around him and finds them in agreement, though he shares a long look with his brother, waiting until Jeff nods slowly.  
“Daddy, why is everyone crying? Are you sad?”  
It’s four year old Camden tugging on Jeff’s shirt sleeves, who breaks the spell, capturing the full attention of all the adults at once. His father grabs him underneath the armpits to swing him up against his hip before wiping his eyes. 

“No squirt, we’re not all sad. Well, maybe a little bit, but mostly, we’re just really happy to have your uncle Jared back with us.”  
“And that’s why you’re crying?”  
“Yup. Sometimes people cry when they’re happy, too.”  
Camden wrinkles his cute little button nose: “That’s weird.”  
Which makes everyone laugh and disperses the rest of the tension hanging over them. Jeff grabs Camden’s nose between his fingers and the boy’s high pitched squeal makes for another round of chuckles.  
“You’re not wrong, squirt. But what do you say we take a look at that barbecue now before that roast starts smoking not in a good way? Get everything ready for dinner?”  
“Yeah, I’m hungry.”  
“Me, too,” Jared adds, finding himself surprised that it’s true, his stomach rumbling something fierce. He shares another look with his brother of the toddler’s blond head and feels a smile tug at his face.  
Somehow he’s fairly sure now that they’re going to be alright. 

~*~

Jensen knows, even as he offers to help do the dishes after the family barbecue, that he’s opening himself up to a potential ambush, but he has been raised too well not to help out, especially after he’s been treated to such a fabulous meal and welcomed into this family like Jared’s not the only one come home. And it’s going to be coming either way, now or the next time they’re here or the time after, so might as well get it over with, see where they stand.  
He takes a dripping pan from Sharon to wipe down, his eyes drawn through the kitchen window to the backyard where the rest of the family sits - save Jared, who is roughhousing with the little ones - and isn’t surprised when she asks: “So, why don’t you explain to me now in detail everything you left out about what happened to my son?”  
Jensen glances sideways at her and counters: “What makes you think that…”  
“Do not even try with me, young man, all ‘this is classified’ and some such nonsense. I am his _mother_ and I demand to know what’s really been going on.”

Jensen hunches his shoulders and files the failed attempt under plausible deniability. He sees the gleaming steel of a resolute Southern mum in her eyes and a sudden close resemblance to Jared. And he knows that boy, that he does, so he tries a different tack, to see if that works with his mum as well.  
“I’ll tell you, and only you,” he puts a whiff of that same steel in his tone to make clear in no uncertain terms that there is an ‘or else’ attached, “but the sensitive nature of the matter doesn’t only concern national security and whatever else the administration would like to think should keep us quiet. It’s not the only reason _we_ decided to keep the explanation as non-specific as possible.”  
He puts down the pan and turns towards Sharon, leaning against the counter with the dish towel cleaning in his hands.  
“Jared is acutely afraid of you looking at him differently when you know. So whatever I tell you – and it’s going to be the truth whether you find yourself believing it or not – I have to have your word right now, without actually knowing what you’re walking into, that no matter what you think or feel once you have all the facts, you will not let on in front of him that you know, and that anything’s changed.”  
Sharon stares at him with wide eyes, her mouth forming a small ‘o’ and he doesn’t want to land on the wrong side of Jared’s family, he really doesn’t, but he needs her to know that he’s going to protect Jared from everything and everyone, and there’ll be consequences if she can’t keep her end of the bargain.  
“I swear, whatever you tell me will stay between us and Jared won’t ever know unless and until he decides to tell me himself.”  
Jensen responds with a small sigh and turns back to the window where Jared is playing space shuttle with his nephew, and says:  
“Nano-robotic prosthetics.”

“What does that mean?”  
Jensen glances at Sharon for a second, then looks back and points at Jared.  
“That arm he’s got Camden dangling from?” they hear the small boy screeching in delight at being swooshed through the air, “Artificial, from the elbow down,” powering through Sharon’s stifled gasp, he goes on: “a hydroxyapatite structure completely rebuilt according to spec, operated and maintained by a swarm of self-repairing and constantly re-specializing nano-robots that are controlled by a processing unit which is integrated into his central nervous system and uses his actual sensory and motor-cordial brain activity to function, so he has a perfectly natural range of movement and full sensory perception. The left eye, replaced after piercing shrapnel damage, same with the right ear, ruptured eardrum, hammer, stapedial bone reconstructed. Muscle rebuilt in his right leg from where the blast left major traumatic injury, complimentary enhancement on the left to keep it balanced. And there various support structures in place to help several of his inner organs function properly, heart, right lung, left kidney.”  
After he has made himself deliver the scientific facts as straightforward as possible, struggling to keep the images out of his head that want to overlay Jared’s now healthy and agile body with the absolute mess he’d first found on his operating table, he waits. The tension rises into their mutual, strained silence until it becomes too much and he turns to look at Sharon. 

Jared’s mother is white as a sheet, staring out into the backyard, where Jared is just catching his nephew from having launched him up into ‘space’, the rest of the family laughing in uproar, thankfully distracted enough not to glance at the tableau inside of the kitchen window. Jensen calmly reaches for another pan in the sink, rinsing it to put it into the dry rack, to give his hands something to do and Sharon a few more seconds inside the pretend normalcy to process what he said.  
Then he asks: “So, are you looking at him differently?”  
He knows the answer to that question, as sure as the sky is blue, and the knowledge gives his voice a sharp edge, cutting through the stupor, but he needs to know what he and Jared will be walking into once they return here. 

Sharon startles and they lock eyes as she stammers: “That isn’t… that can’t be possible, that kind of technology doesn’t exist.”  
“Of course it does, I built it. And it’s the reason Jared’s alive. Aside from him being stronger than any person I know, both physically and mentally.”  
“And there’s no way he can ever be… without?”  
Jensen fixes her with a sharp look, but she doesn’t seem judgemental or afraid, just… curious.  
“I guess it’s possible after all this time that his inner organs have had enough time to heal to be able to sustain his life again without help, the body is remarkable that way. But it’s unlikely he would walk, certainly not unaided. And the arm is gone for good, no two ways about it. Also, to be honest, I’m not at all sure what would happen if we were to try and detach the central control unit from his brain, it’s… integrated in a way that would make any attempt to interfere with it have – unforeseeable consequences to the functionality of his neural network.”

It’s Sharon’s turn now to consider him sharply: “Which I’m assuming means, it doesn’t work according to protocol?”  
“Uhm… not quite, it works,” she cocks her head while he’s casting around for words, “better. So much better than we ever could have imagined in our wildest dreams, like it’s a part of him. Jared’s abilities, his recovery, it’s…”  
“… a miracle.”  
She is still looking outside, but her hand has grasped his where it lay on the counter top, squeezing hard and Jensen finds a prickle building in the corner of his eyes at the sight of her delicate fingers on top of his.  
“Thank you, again, for returning my son to me. And for letting me know how much more difficult it was than we could have ever imagined.”  
Jensen takes a shuddering breath, unaware of the weight that had built up in him over time until it was gone, washed away by the simple acknowledgement.  
When he looks up again, this time he finds Jared looking back at him through the window, a small frown forming on his face like he’s sniffed out Jensen’s distress from where he stands. The only thing Jensen can do in response is soundlessly form the words ‘I love you’ and watch Jared’s brow smooth out into a blinding smile and Jensen can just about read ‘I love you back’ on his lips.  
He finds that, with the silent approval of another tight squeeze of Sharon’s fingers, he can finally, truly look forward to the new future they are going to build.


End file.
